[Mark]

Can anyone recommend any videos on faux finishing that would be useful to both contractors and creative diy'ers. I am always looking to expand our lending library at the store and videos or dvd's are a big hit for sure.

 

[pgriz]

Can anyone recommend any videos on faux finishing that would be useful to both contractors and creative diy'ers. I am always looking to expand our lending library at the store and videos or dvd's are a big hit for sure.

Why don't you make your own? It's not that hard, and the price of the equipment to do it has fallen dramatically. You need a mini-DV digital video camera, a pentium-3 computer with about 200 GB of disk space and about 500 MB of memory, a firewire or fast USB connection, and a software package (videoway, ulead, video deluxe, or even Microsoft's own Movie Editor, included with Windows XP). We've produced a full training video for VHS and DVD (another software package called myDVD), and found the process time-consuming, but ultimately rewarding, as we were able to explain exactly what we wanted. We now document jobs in progress on video (before, during, after) and give the homeowners a complimentary DVD copy. Of course, on that DVD we also include marketing information and various promotional material, since we know the homeowners will be showing off the DVD to their family and friends! It's another twist to the well-proven method of word-of-mouth marketing.

PS> Love your town. My family and I have passed through Woodstock a number of times driving to the Maritimes and back, stayed there several times, and last time even managed to get to the country fair, where the kids had a blast. It's a beautiful location, and you've got quite a few very attractive homes. I've got a dealer in your area, and maybe next time I'm visiting him, maybe I can drop in on you.

 

[Grumpy]

200 gb of space?! are you sure about that?

 

[pgriz]

200 gb of space?! are you sure about that?

Given the low price of disk storage (say 120 GB Maxtor for about $150), it's quite cheap to outfit your system with mega-storage. However, you don't actually need that much. I did my first training video (2 hours 10 minutes) on a system with about 100 GB. If you use MPEG-2 compression, you can fit a 2 hour video into a 4 GB file, which fits nicely on a DVD. If you don't compress, then each minute of DV-video will take up about 180 MB. So having lots of disk room is essential for building up a library of video clips. Once you've done the editing, applied the special effects (fades, overlays, voice-overs, titles, etc.), you can compress the final result.

 

[Grumpy]

I didn't say it wasn't feasible. MY home computer has 200 gb but I don't see how you could use all that space since a 15 min mpeg is only 100,000 kb... do you have 2 hour presentations?! Mine are only a few minutes.

I doubt many customers would want to watch my documentary on roofing. As I said in a previous post I prefer flash and powerpoint for my presentations because they are more interactive.

 

[pgriz]

I didn't say it wasn't feasible. MY home computer has 200 gb but I don't see how you could use all that space since a 15 min mpeg is only 100,000 kb... do you have 2 hour presentations?! Mine are only a few minutes.

I doubt many customers would want to watch my documentary on roofing. As I said in a previous post I prefer flash and powerpoint for my presentations because they are more interactive.

If any of my customers thought I was going to give them 2-hour presentations, I'd never even get in the door! That 2-hour thing that I did is a full training video for the DIY homeowner who wants to do the roof installation themselves. For product presentations our maximum length is about 9 minutes.

You are right in saying that a 15 min mpeg is only about 100 MB, but remember, that the mpeg file is already compressed, and the compression is not loss-less. For top quality, you want to store your video clips uncompressed, and compress them only for the final version. That's why, if you follow this method, you need lots of storage.

 

[Unregistered]

PS> Love your town. My family and I have passed through Woodstock a number of times driving to the Maritimes and back, stayed there several times, and last time even managed to get to the country fair, where the kids had a blast. It's a beautiful location, and you've got quite a few very attractive homes. I've got a dealer in your area, and maybe next time I'm visiting him, maybe I can drop in on you.[/QUOTE]

Hey Pgriz,

I have actually considered my own dvd down the road. My son has all the equipment and know how so i might just do it.... how hard can it be right ?? LOL I checked out your site and I am guessing your dealer is Tony ? Drop in anytime for some of that good maritime hospitality, we are right on main St so you can't miss the big sign. Old Home Week...that is a blast for the kids. I have some great local links on my site next time your surfing. Take care, look forward to meeting you when your in town again.

 

[pgriz]

I checked out your site and I am guessing your dealer is Tony ? Drop in anytime for some of that good maritime hospitality, we are right on main St so you can't miss the big sign. Old Home Week...that is a blast for the kids. I have some great local links on my site next time your surfing. Take care, look forward to meeting you when your in town again.

Thanks for the offer! Yes, Tony's the local dealer. How do you know him?

I think I'll be visiting Tony during February so that we can plan out a marketing campaign around his abilities and strengths. He's been working on some large jobs using our products, and they promise to be show-homes when he finishes, so I'm really eager to see how they turned out.

As for the maritime hospitality, can't get enough of it. My family took two extended trips several years ago doing a combination of camping / motels / bed-and-breakfast overnight stays and we were just blown away at how friendly and helpful everyone we met on the trip was to us. The kids keep wanting that at least one week each summer we go to New Brunswick, or Cape Breton, or PEI. You got us hooked, buddy!

 

[Mark]

My partner Judy and I know Tony well and he's a great guy. Back when we were contracting we worked on some jobs together and finished up some for him. Do drop in when your passing through....would be great to meet you and the coffee's always fresh in the store.

 

[Da Vinci]

We are gearing up to do the same thing, using footage from a 12 million dollar home we completed this year.

I have an engineer friend who works with Sony on multimillion dollar projects- recommended Pinnacle 12 for video editing.

We bought Roxio prior but it's a little difficult to use- any suggestions?

Bob
www.elshaddaipainting.com

 

[pkcpainting]

Mark,

check out "faux for your haunt, basic" it is a DVD that was made for the haunted house industry, but other then the theme it covers the basics of faux finishing.

 

[FoilEffects]

Mark,

I see that you are in Canada, there is a company called Adicolor in Canada who made a video on faux. Check out adicolor.com, there are many many dvds out there some good and some not so good but each one will teach you something. Adicolor sells there line wholesale to many of the Benny Moore stores in the US and getting into there product line is not a heavy investment however the products fly off the shelf. Check them out and if you want more info on DVDs let me know...

 

[slickshift]

Mark's post is over 5 years old...lol
But for any other retailers interested, Ben Moore will hold a seminar in your store for faux finishing

 

[Tmrrptr]

Wow! A timewarp.

I thought I was the only one who talked to a wall.